There's a lot to think about in what you say. I wonder if anyone has researched this androgyny-style fashion for young boys around the turn of the century? (Well, not the turn of THIS century, guess that phrase has to be qualified).
There's a photo of HP Lovecraft in deCamp's biography. Little Howard is about a year or so old, wearing a white dress and with shoulder-length blonde curls. Of course Lovecraft turned out perfectly normal and well-adjusted..